@Hawk Diesel The problem with your concept makes assumptions on the number of cantrips a wizard would actually prepare. I'm not saying you don't know this, but here is a reminder on what cantrips are for anyone who might not be aware.
Cantrips are spells that spell casters learn and know as part of learning to cast spells.
A cantrip is a spell that can be cast at will, without using a spell slot and without being prepared in advance. Repeated practice has fixed the spell in the caster’s mind and infused the caster with the magic needed to produce the effect over and over. A cantrip’s spell level is 0.
At 1st level, you know three cantrips of your choice from the wizard spell list. You learn additional wizard cantrips of your choice at higher levels, as shown in the Cantrips Known column of the Wizard table.
That's why they are not in the spell book in the first place.
The other reason they are not in the spell book is 5e does use a variation on AED as shown in the by short rest / long rest recovery abilities. Not all classes follow the same AED schedule and it's not exactly the same but it's still a thing. Cantrips are given as an at-will ability and measured against other classes in at-will / always on options. That is where your assumption on number of cantrips being prepped matters.
In early levels a Wizard should have access to one less cantrip, but by level 20 will have access to one more cantrip (assuming they choose to memorize a number of cantrips equal to their proficiency bonus), so for me this seems to equal out.
That's not true. If I only have 2 spell slots anyway I would prep mage armor and sleep, 4 cantrips for the at-will options when I have no spell slots, and carry 2 or 3 rituals. The extra cantrip is the benefit for playing a sorcerer but your proposal enables the wizard to replicate it and carry rituals and carry that broader spell list.
Low levels don't last long. But when I have a lot of slots to carry me through the day then I'm not going to increase my number of cantrips prepped. I'm more likely to drop it down to 2 or 3 and simply prep a wider range of higher level spells because knowing more higher level spells outweighs knowing cantrips.
Book of Shadows is good on a warlock because of the limitations on pact magic (plus non-warlock cantrips). Wizards don't have that limitation so the incentive to add at-will abilities is starts out high and drops over time.
I'm never going to take 5 or 6 cantrips at high levels over prepping spells. The only way for that to be true is if I were forced to do so in the mechanics, which is something your changes would not create.
If you were to impose a restriction where wizards preps normally for spells and preps cantrips equal to the proficiency bonus that would work better. It's also pointless over simply enforcing the cantrips known on the table as cantrips a wizard can prepare.
The other option in mixing and matching cantrips and spells is in making the choice have more meaning, as per my earlier comment where you don't add any bonuses to spells prepped at all. That means a wizard will likely start with 2 or 3 spells prepped, 1 or 2 cantrips prepped, and still carry rituals. That gives flavor to the class and creates a meaningful choice in cantrips. It would likely result in less cantrips at every level to reinforce daily casting but it's something wizards can afford given the large number of spells they can prep given their ritual casting mechanic.
In any case, giving wizards more standard spells prepped isn't a buff I think should be endorsed, which is ultimately what you proposal does.